


Piece by Piece

by ziskandra



Series: red, green, blue [2]
Category: Mass Effect Trilogy
Genre: Body Horror, Character Study, Gen, Passive Suicidal Ideation, Synthesis Ending, Unhealthy Relationships
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-22
Updated: 2020-10-22
Packaged: 2021-03-09 06:13:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 557
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27069910
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ziskandra/pseuds/ziskandra
Summary: After the Commander’s first death, asphyxiating in the skies over Alchera, Miranda had been the one to piece Shepard back together again, like the world’s most elaborate jigsaw puzzle.The second time… well, she’s practically an expert.
Relationships: Miranda Lawson & Female Shepard
Series: red, green, blue [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2004262
Comments: 6
Kudos: 19
Collections: Little Black Dress Flash 2020





	Piece by Piece

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Enisy](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Enisy/gifts).



Miranda knows Shepard’s body better than anyone else in the entire universe. No, not like that. Never like that. But after the Commander’s first death, asphyxiating in the skies over Alchera, Miranda had been the one to piece Shepard back together again, like the world’s most elaborate jigsaw puzzle.

The second time… well, she’s practically an expert. As soon as Shepard’s body is located and the relays are repaired, thanks to assistance of their one-time sworn enemies, Miranda commandeers a lab with all the resources she’d funnelled away from Cerberus, from her father. Thrumming with energy, she throws herself into her work, determined to sculpt the Commander even more perfectly than before.

It’s simple, really: the less she thinks, the better.

*

Shepard hadn’t expected to survive the blast. Everything had been a violent shade of green, the image burnt on her state-of-the-art retinas. She’d made the hard choices, so nobody else had to. She hadn’t gotten this far and brokered all these careful deals to be held responsible for another genocide, or worse, the extinction of the entire galaxy.

And like fuck she wanted to live forever. So really, her choice had been simple. She hadn’t been thinking about the philosophical or ethical implications. Barely knew what freedom was, considering what little taste she’d had for it. The Alliance had rescued her from the smouldering ruins of Mindoir, but sometimes she wished they’d just left her there to die.

She’d already been basically half-synthetic before she’d fired the Crucible, with her implants and her cybernetics and whatever-the-hell had been installed without her consent or knowledge. It wasn’t that she wanted people to feel the same way. Just that she didn’t care if they _did_.

*

The recovery process is much gentler this time. Shepard’s additional synthetic components coupled with the lack of any raid or attacks on Miranda’s facility means that they can take all the time they need. First, they start with the eyes. Miranda watches as Shepard can track her movement around the room, pacing in circles as she considers her calculations.

It’s several weeks later that Shepard begins to speak. The first question out of the other woman’s mouth is simply, “Why?”

Miranda’s footsteps falter. Maybe it’s a bug in her own genetic engineering, but she hadn’t stopped to consider such a restrictive question. The only answer she has, the answer she offers Shepard, is, “Why not?”

She’d swear the Commander looks like she’s about to cry. But she can’t.

Her tear ducts are yet to finish forming completely.

*

“I know why you did it,” Miranda says abruptly as Shepard experimentally flexes her limbs. The alloys Miranda’s used this time are stronger, she says. Shepard could survive a whole damn meteor shower concentrated directly on her body. At this rate, she could actually end up being the only one left standing at the end of the galaxy.

Shepard tilts her head, regards Miranda with growing curiosity. She still doesn’t know why, really, the other woman’s brought her here, has bothered putting her back together like this, piece by piece. It’s not like there’s another threat to the galaxy Shepard’s got to save them all from again. “Why I did what?” she asks, like it’s necessary.

Like she still doesn’t see green whenever she closes her eyes.

Miranda’s voice breaks. “You didn’t want to be alone.”


End file.
